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The parasha
for this Shabbat is entitled Mishpatim
which means “Judgments”. This Torah portion contains
a great deal of what we would call “case law”
- prescribed fines and/or punishments for a broad
spectrum of offenses concerning personal injury
and property. They include:
- The rights and obligations
of slaves and their masters
- Capital offenses, including
premeditated murder, kidnapping, sorcery, bestiality,
offering sacrifices to false gods, and even
the striking or cursing of one’s parents.
- Fines and/or punishments
for non-lethal bodily injuries, including those
arising from criminal negligence.
- Fines and/or punishments
for breach of trust, theft and arson
In previous
generations it was thought, particularly by liberal
scholars, that the various statutes, ordinances
and commandments found in the Torah were not the
writings of one man (Moses), but had been thrown
together in something of a patchwork by people
living over a thousand years later. Despite more
recent scholarship, some still embrace this erroneous
teaching (also known as the Documentary Hypothesis,
or JEDP theory). Certainly a cursory reading
might give one the impression of a hodge-podge
of rules and regulations. But in the mid-19th
century, biblical scholars such as Thomas Boys
and E.W. Bullinger began the structural analysis
of entire books of the Bible. Previously scholars
had only noticed symmetry and parallelism in single
verses or in smaller passages, but Bullinger found
that entire books and even sections of the Scriptures
had been arranged with clear intentionality and
followed recognizable patterns.
I say
this because, while it may have finally been verified
by scholars in the 19th century, it was hardly
a new revelation to those who already held to
the Divine inspiration of Scripture and who accepted
the claim of Moses as the essential author of
the Torah. And in analyzing the structure of this
parasha, there is symmetry to it, and what is
commonly called a Chiastic structure. The
Greek letter Chi is shaped like our X - you have
parallel items or teachings at each outer edge
(in this case, a divine encounter with God at
Mt. Sinai on either side of this section), and
something of particular interest at the very center
where it comes together. Whatever is at the center
is what the author wanted you and me to give our
fullest attention to!
At the
very center of the 118 verses that comprise parasha
Mishpatim are these words:
And
you shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him,
for you were strangers in the land of
Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow
or orphan. If you afflict him at all,
and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely
hear his cry.
In the
midst of all this case law, all these assorted
personal and property rights, we find an exhortation
not to take advantage of the weak and vulnerable:
strangers (meaning non-Israelis), widows and orphans
- those perceived as living on the periphery of
society. Strangers, widows and orphans were those
with the fewest resources, those least able to
defend themselves against the ruthless and greedy
who would use legal loopholes to seize their meager
assets.
Along
the same lines, we are admonished in this parasha
not to exploit the bad situation of a fellow Israelite
by charging unreasonable interest on loans we
might make, and we are to accord dignity to those
who need to take a loan and not be unreasonable
about what they give as collateral on the loan.
We are
forbidden from cursing God or a ruler of our people.
We are prohibited from perverting justice in any
way; whether through perjury, lodging of false
accusations, offering or receiving bribes or showing
partiality toward either the rich or poor.
We are
also commanded not to turn a blind eye when our
enemy’s donkey collapses under its load, or has
wandered away and we find it (23:4-5).
In chapter
23 we are commanded concerning the Sabbath as
it pertains both to ourselves and to our land
and our animals. We are further commanded that
every Israeli man must appear before God three
times each year (Unleavened Bread/Firstfruits/Sukkot),
and we are warned not to come empty-handed! If
you were invited to a friend’s house for dinner,
wouldn’t you at least bring something for dessert,
or flowers or a bottle of nice wine for them?
How much more when we appear before the King of
kings, who invites us to His table!
The parasha
concludes with the promise that God will drive
out the inhabitants of the land before us, but
also a warning not to participate in Canaanite
worship or make any treaty with them. Finally,
the people re-affirm their commitment to enter
God’s covenant and to abide by its terms. Moses
sacrifices bulls on God’s altar and sprinkles
both the altar and the people with the blood of
that covenant. It is a picture of our entering
into the New Covenant by open confession of our
faith in Yeshua, agreeing to His terms, and being
sanctified by His blood.
A Torah
scholar came to Yeshua once, asking what he would
have to do to inherit eternal life. Yeshua put
the question back to him, “What is written in
the Torah? How does it read to you?” The scholar
answered that all of the Torah was summed up in
the dual commands to love the Lord your God with
all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and to
love your neighbor as yourself. Yeshua told him
he had answered correctly. But the young man needed
clarification. “And who is my neighbor?” he asked.
Isn’t that just like us? “Never mind the principle,
just tell me where the cut-off point is. What
is the minimum I have to do to get in?”
According
to this week’s parasha, your neighbor includes
the down-and-out, the poor, weak and disenfranchised,
and how about this - your enemy, too! Do you still
want in? Nobody said this walk was going to be
an easy one. Have you openly declared, “All that
the Lord Yeshua has spoken I will do”? Good. I
hope you won’t ask, “And who is my enemy?”
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn |
